It has taken a few years but the BC Liberals have turned 180 degrees on the issue of foreign buyers influencing the local housing market.
Starting next week, any foreign citizen or company wanting to buy a home here will pay an extra 15% tax on the property’s value.
For years, the premier insisted there was no link and no need to even collect any data on foreign purchasers. She later conceded foreign cash probably was a factor but that she also wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize any of the equity homeowners had “painstakingly” acquired.
Finally, she opted to start collecting data on foreign purchases, but still chose to blame the affordability crisis on municipalities for failing to approve more condo projects.
So why the sudden change of tune when? We suspect their pre-election polling was telling them voters would rather see them doing something, as opposed to nothing.
The main worry now, of course, is that this is a case of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. Or more specifically, the horse has decided to move its family to the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island or elsewhere in the country in search of more habitable pastures.
--North Shore News
